Sermon
The Second Coming Of Christ
October 4, 2003
Pastor Donald Sheley

I'm going to ask you to take your notes tonight because there are some interesting things here I think that will really be helpful, and these notes you can use for further reference. Our subject tonight is the second coming of Jesus Christ. And the Lord willing, next Saturday night I'm going to talk about the subject of what we should know about the Holy Spirit. What we have done after completing our series in the Psalms for the summer, we decided that we would take time and restate our Christian faith, some of a great doctrines of our Christian faith, so we've talked about water baptism, we have talked about stewardship, we've talked about heaven, we've talked about hell. Tonight we're talking about the second coming, and the Lord willing, we'll talk about what we should know about the Holy Spirit.

We have a number of scripture verses so let me just read them as we go along; you follow with me. Now I refer here to the Amplified Bible, and again I explain, the amplified text is a Bible that I use for study, and I do this because the amplified text expands the words that we in English do not have adequate wording to explain some of the words of the Greek language. And again I tell you this, but you can see how vast the problem is. We as English-speaking people have a vocabulary of about 30,000 words, but if you're an educated and trained Greek scholar you'll have a vocabulary of over 200,000 words.

And just for instance we use the word love. We say I love my wife, we love our car, we love our children, we love our friends, but in the Greek there are seven different words for love and the way it's used specifies exactly the object to which you're expressing your love. We don't have that kind of ability in the English language. So the amplified text is the text that takes and amplifies the original shades of meaning in the English text, so you get a much more wholesome, I think, explanation of the text.

So let's read; let me read it for you. In Acts 1:9-11, "And when He had said this, even as they were looking [at Him], He was caught up, and a cloud received and carried Him away out of their sight. And while they were gazing intently into heaven as He went, behold, two men [dressed] in white robes suddenly stood beside them, Who said, Men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing into heaven? This same Jesus, Who was caught away and lifted up from among you into heaven, will return in [just] the same way in which you saw Him go into heaven."

Then the passage from 1 Thessalonians chapter 4, "Now also we would not have you ignorant, brethren, about those who fall asleep [in death], that you may not grieve [for them] as the rest do who have no hope [beyond the grave]. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will also bring with Him through Jesus those who have fallen asleep [in death]. For this we declare to you by the Lord's [own] word, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord shall in no way precede [into His presence] or have any advantage at all over those who have previously fallen asleep [in Him in death]. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a loud cry of summons, with the shout of an archangel, and with the blast of the trumpet of God. And those who have departed this life in Christ will rise first. Then we, the living ones who remain [on the earth], shall simultaneously be caught up along with [the resurrected dead] in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air; and so always (through the eternity of the eternities) we shall be with the Lord! Therefore comfort and encourage one another with these words."

In the Matthew passage which is very, very familiar, I'm sure, to most of us, "Jesus departed from the temple area and was going on His way when His disciples came up to Him to call His attention to the buildings of the temple and point them out to Him. But He answered them, Do you see all these? Truly I tell you, there will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down. While He was seated on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately and said, Tell us, when will this take place, and what will be the sign of Your coming and of the end (the completion, the consummation) of the age? Jesus answered them, Be careful that no one misleads you [deceiving you and leading you into error]. For many will come in (on the strength of) my name [appropriating the name which belongs to Me], saying, I am the Christ (the Messiah), and they will lead many astray. And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars; see that you are not frightened or troubled, for this must take place, but the end is not yet.

For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places. And these are the beginning of sorrows. Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for My name's sake. And then many will be offended, will betray one another, and will hate one another. Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many. And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold. But he who endures to the end shall be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come."

And then as Paul writes to Titus, "For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself His own special people, zealous for good works."

So here's our lesson: The first coming of Jesus Christ to this earth was one of humiliation and he took upon Himself the form of a servant, and became obedient onto death, even the death of the cross. That speaks of the humiliation of Christ, "not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give His life a ransom for many."

But even as the cross drew near, He encouraged His disciples with promises of a second, triumphal event: "For the Son of man shall come in the glory of His Father with His angels." A vast difference from His first coming and His second coming. Similarly, He gave warning to His enemies, as they demanded Him, "Art thou the Christ, the son of the Blessed?" He answered, "I am: and you shall see the Son of man sitting at the right hand of Power, and coming with the clouds of heaven." Now because He made such a claim they condemned Him to death. And the New Testament closes with this promise: "Yea, I come quickly"; and the saints of the ages have responded, "Amen: come, Lord Jesus."

Now Christ, moreover, spoke of His second coming in relation to other matters. He related it to the lives of His disciples, saying that they should be "like unto men looking for their Lord." He further cautioned that immediately after the tribulation...the powers of heaven shall be shaken and that only then should they "see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with great power and great glory." And finally, and only after His appearing, would He "send forth His angels, with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together His elect from the four winds."

Let's pause there for a minute and take our Bible because we're going to reference here a number of times that theme, the great tribulation. Turn with me in your Bible to Matthew chapter 24 and let's read, we've already read the first 14 verses of this chapter, but just so when we get to the thought of the great tribulation you'll understand what is being referenced.

Matthew 24:15, and I'll read from 15 through 28, so in our lesson tonight when we come across the thought of the great tribulation this is the set of verses that is being referred to. Look at what it says: "Then when you see the 'abomination of desolation,' spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place" (whoever reads, let him understand), "then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. Let him who is on the housetop not go down to take anything out of his house. And let him who is in the field not go back to get his clothes. But woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days! And pray that your flight may not be in winter or on the Sabbath. For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be. And unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved;" That's a severe tribulation. "But for the elect's sake those days will be shortened.

"Then if anyone says to you, 'Look, here is the Christ!' or 'There!' do not believe it. For false christs and false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect. See, I have told you beforehand. Therefore if they say to you, 'Look, He is in the desert!' do not go out; or 'Look, He is in the inner rooms!' do not believe it. For as the lightning comes from the east and flashes to the west, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. For wherever the carcass is, there the eagles will be gathered together." So the theme of that verse speaks of a great day of tribulation on the world.

Let's go back to our page 2. Paul in particular gave admonition, to wait for His son from heaven assuring the early believers that those who had died with Christ, will God bring with Him. From these and from similar scriptures, the church down through the centuries has formulated its beliefs relative to the events that surround and take place at the second coming of Jesus Christ.

Now let me pause here just for a moment. All of us with a church background realize that at the heart of our Christian faith is the belief that Jesus Christ will come back to this earth again. Now there's great controversy as to how and when this will take place, but we believe He came once, and as the angel said, He will come again. I want to give you some historical background because to me it's a fascinating subject. When you read church history very frequently the great leaders of the church would get together, because it wouldn't take very long until some of the great doctrines of faith began to slip and became twisted and torn by false teachers.

And so as you read church history you'll find these great leaders come together and they pull again -- as a result the great creeds, the Apostles' Creed, the Nicene Creed, and the Athanasian Creed. These were gathering of the church leaders of that known time in the world to again bring Christian doctrine back into alignment with Scriptures.

So in 325 A.D. there was what was known as the Council of Nicaea. I'm at the top of page 3. The ancient church was characterized in general by two convictions respecting the sequence of events of Christ's second coming. So nearly 300 years after Christ' ascension, there were two basic convictions that the early church lived by.

In the first place, it expected that the Lord could appear in the clouds in immediate connection with any day of its own contemporary life. It must be observed at the outset, however, that imminency as herein defined does not mean that it had to be close at hand, only that it could be. Now I back up just for a moment because when you get back into the writings of the New Testament you'll find that even the church at Thessalonica believed so deeply in a soon return of Christ that many of the folks just stopped working. So as time progressed that urgency kind of drifted away. They believed that Christ could come, but in order for scripture to be fulfilled He didn't have to come. In other words, it was a possibility, but not something that the Scriptures said would happened immediately.

Then there was an episode written by Ignatius to the Ephesians, and it was written in the year of 105 A.D. It has these words: "The last times are come upon us, the end of the world comes suddenly. Weigh carefully the times. Look for Him who is above all time." So I put these in here because you can see just a few years after the New Testament is complete, you have this sense of urgency by these great pastors of the early church.

And there's another one here, the Didache, which was written about the year 100 A.D., which were the teachings of the New Testament; you find these words: "Watch for your life's sake. Let not your lamps be quenched, nor your loins unloosed; but be ye ready, for ye know not the hour in which our Lord cometh." So from these and the words of Scripture, we note that the early church loved His appearing and was ready for it at any time. That's very important. It was something expected by all those early Christians.

Now the second conviction of the early church was that they anticipated that the coming of the Lord to His Church would be subsequent both to their own persecution at the hands of the Antichrist and to the heavenly phenomena that would inaugurate the wrath of God against the evil one. Their belief was that the Church would not escape the tribulation. Now keep that in mind. The early church says He could come at any time, but it's also our belief that the church will go through that tribulation that is pointed out in Matthew 24. So we must keep that in mind. That was the belief of the early church.

With the Council of Nicaea though in 325 and the official recognition of Christianity by the Roman Emperor Constantine, the hope of the church underwent a radical transformation. Now this is a phenomenal moment in the history of understanding what the church taught about the second coming. Persecution having ceased, the Roman government could no longer be identified as the Antichrist.

Let me explain. You remember when Constantine in the year 321 announced that Christianity was now the official religion of the Roman Empire. Up to that moment the Christians felt that the Roman Empire embodied the Antichrist, and all of a sudden now the Antichrist who was supposedly the Roman Empire it's changed and they have accepted wholeheartedly the teachings of Christianity. Well now they've got to change their eschatology. They've got to change what they have been teaching.

And probably the one, the man who exercised the greatest influence upon the course of subsequent prophetic interpretation was Augustine, who was the author of 'THE CITY OF GOD'. This was in the year of A.D. 420. In this monumental study of God and history, Augustine labeled his earlier premillennial persuasions as "ridiculous fancies" and changed his belief saying, "the millennium was not Christ's future rule, but the present church. In other words, he said, the millennium has begun.

Now I make an observation; it's always interesting to me how theologians and prophetic students change their eschatology. Eschatology is the study of coming prophetic events. They change it to suit the historical climate through which they are passing. Think with me just for a moment folks. The reason why this is such an interesting subject is because when you really go back in history you'll find that positions changed dramatically with historical events that are taking place. That's why it is exceedingly unwise to be dogmatic about teaching eschatology or prophetic events. It's good for us to know about it. There are certain things we will conclude that are certainties, but you find people who get all wrapped up in prophecies. They spend their nights and their days putting together all of these supposedly courses of events that will take place, and then after they realize they were all wrong they've got a go back and change them again.

We live in the Bay Area, and we have a false prophet who has a radio station across in Oakland. And that false prophet a few years ago put out a book, made a few hundred thousand dollars with it, and told everyone that Jesus was coming, I think, in 1999. And I said at the time what we all should do is get a big dump truck of stones and take it over and dump it in front of the office there and when the day passes, we all stone the place. You say, pastor, that sounds very cruel. Listen, the Bible says in the Old Testament if they were a false prophet you stone them.

In other words, the severe judgment of God is on somebody who makes false prophecies. So you'll find, it's very interesting, down through time people who have had this great emphasis on prophecy, they'll come to a point and realize that all of their thoughts, their projections, weren't so and they've got to go back and change them. So even Augustine, the great theologian of that part of history, said what I believed was foolishness.

The first, though perhaps unwitting, herald of a return to the hope of the apostolic fathers was a monk in the year of 1202 A.D. In other words, you could see now there are almost 800 years silence. The subject of the second coming of Christ is really not important anymore to the church; 800 years of silence. And you have this old monk somewhere in some monastery studying the Bible and all of a sudden he realizes here is a truth that Jesus is coming back, and it's a truth that hasn't been taught in the church.

We move down a few more hundred years and the sixteenth century witnessed a return to the teachings of the apostolic church. Above all else, Protestantism recaptured the fundamental doctrine of justification by faith. That is, faith solely in Christ, however, it produced a corollary anticipation of His imminent return to complete the redemption of His chosen people. So when Protestantism came about 400 years ago, and the emphasis is that justification is by faith, there was a return to the reading of the Bible, and in the reading of the Bible there is a return to these great scripture verses where Jesus says He'll come back to earth again.

Luther was a major figure in the Protestant reformation and he held that Christ would not return immediately, yet he demonstrated the possibility of such a coming. The Scripture points out certain "signs of the times" which Luther felt provided a positive basis for hope in the Lord's imminent appearing. And so he wrote: "My own belief and sure hope is that the majority of these signs have happened already and that we have not to expect many more." In other words, Luther said, Ah, all of these signs of the times of the Scripture most likely there are all fulfilled and we may be, this was way back, 1600, we may be at the edge of Christ coming again.

But you'll notice that he was very cautious to set dates and he took an open issue with Michael Stiefel who had raised furor by predicting Christ's second coming in judgment at 8:00 am on October 19, 1533. He was way off, wasn't he? Luther did insist, "I will not permit anyone to rob me of my opinion that the day of the Lord is not far hence." So he kind of was a little mushy on it, wasn't he? I believe it could happen, but I'm cautious.

Another prominent figure in the Protestant reformation was Calvin. In his writings are found some of the clearest formulations of the classical Christian hope of the Lord's imminent appearing. Calvin was horrified by the apocalyptic fanaticism of some of his own contemporaries and he shunned all calculations designed to set dates for the second advent.

Here's what happens folks, people get all wrapped up in prophetic subjects. They think they've got the answer, and many of them become fools and they set dates. It's totally against the Scriptures. And so Calvin reacted, this very sense of caution may account for by-passing. And he wrote a mammoth book entitled the 'INSTITUTES' written by Calvin, which was all of his beliefs. And it's interesting, in that mammoth volume of what Calvin believed he never included the subject of the second coming of Christ. And when he wrote all of his commentaries, and he never wrote a commentary on the book of revelation. Now he's one of the great reformers of early Protestantism, but he left the subject in silence. It's interesting.

Now examination of the sources shows that the Reformers wrote relatively little on the Lord's return; more fundamental matters were pressing continually upon them. In other words, I'm suggesting that when you go into church history, even 400 years ago, even though you've got the reformation, the subject of the second coming of Christ is very, very minimal. They had too many other things they were working with as a church so the second coming of Christ wasn't important to them.

Then you come to the year of 1843 and you have the Millerites and they set April 23rd. They were wrong again. But the whole teaching of the second coming of Christ probably has suffered most at the hands of the liberal theologians. Along comes the year of 1900, the liberal theologians out of Germany and America; the first thing they did was take away the supernaturalness of the book. They suggested the Bible truly isn't the word of God. Now as soon as you take the Bible and take away its supernaturalness, then all that it says and all the prophecies that are there become useless and meaningless. And that is why, ladies and gentlemen, in the last 99 years very little has been preached about the second coming of Christ. The liberal theologians have won, and again, the subject is almost a silent one.

I gave you that history to show you that it has been a doctrine that has suffered. It has had its moments of great influence, but it's a subject that has great variables in it.

I want you to go with me to pages 6 and 7. What happens in the subject of prophecy, you have Bible scholars who take Scripture verses and they take a timeline. Notice the timeline is that dotted line that's there. That's what I call the timeline. And what they try to do is lay the prophetic Scriptures on that timeline in the place they think most likely that verse will be fulfilled. And as a result, we come up with two major timelines, and one of them is known as amillennialism. Do you see it over here to the left? And reason why it's called amillennialism is because they do not believe in a millennium.

Now I've got to have you take your Bible again, because well what is the millennium Pastor? Well go with me to Revelation chapter 20, and again, here is the key passage on what is known as the subject of the millennium. Now ladies and gentlemen, there are only 10 verses in the entire Bible on the subject of the millennium, and the entire book of Revelation is a book of symbols. Very little of it can you take literally because it's symbolic. And the great problem I have with the teachings of the millennium, it's a doctrine that is built on a symbolic portion of Scripture, and they've literalized it.

But here's what it says: Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, having the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. He laid hold of the dragon, that serpent of old, who is the Devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years; and he cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal on him, so that he should deceive the nations no more till the thousand years -- there it is, millennium means thousand -- until the thousand years were finished. But after these things he must be released for a little while.

So it seems that during this thousand years Satan is tremendously restrained.

And I saw thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment was committed to them. Then I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their witness to Jesus and for the word of God, who had not worshiped the beast or his image, and had not received his mark on their foreheads or on their hands. And they lived and reigned with Christ for a thousand years -- there it is again, the second time. But the rest of the dead did not live again until the thousand years -- third time mentioned -- were finished. This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is he who has part in the first resurrection. Over such the second death has no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with Him a thousand years. You see it's referenced there in this passage six different times, but thousand is always symbolic of eternal completeness.

But what happens when you take the word millennium and literalize it now we come back and look, so here's what we see. Here's what the amillennialist believe. This is a very popular belief. They believe that all history moves -- see where that "h", where that chair is? That's symbolic of judgment. So all of the church age moves to that moment when Christ, you see Christ coming down from heaven (the arrow pointing down), the resurrection of believers, the resurrection of unbelievers, the judgment, and then the eternal state begins. It's a very simple concept, but you have the church age, Christ comes, the great judgment, and then eternity. Okay?

Now the next one that's quite popular, although this is losing much of its popularity in the last 30 years, and I'll show you why...just what has taken place. So the pretribulational premillennialists -- that means pre means before -- that Christ will come before the tribulation and before the millennium. Pre, pre, do you see it there? Christ comes before the millennium and before the tribulation. We're in the church age. The church age comes to end. You'll notice that there are two arrows going up. Christ comes in the clouds, and this is what's referred to they feel and 1 Thessalonians. Christ will come, the dead in Christ will rise first, the catching of the believers, and the believers go to heaven. Do you see that dotted line that says 7 years? That during those 7 years all the Christians will be in heaven and that will be the time of the great marriage supper of the Lamb.

Down on earth you'll find that's the time of the great tribulation, during that period of time. Then what happens at the end of 7 years, according to this belief, Christ returns with His saints, He sets up His earthly kingdom, and the millennium begins. Do you see it there? And then there is the resurrection of the unbelievers, the judgment, and then eternity for the saints and eternity for the unbelievers.

Now, you say, Pastor what has changed on this one down here? This is one that was very, very popular and still most people believe this, but right at the end of the church age it is now concluded by most of the folks who hold this position that the church will go through the tribulation. And we come back to the place where the early church, remember, started. Christ could come at any time, but the church is going to go through the tribulation.

So the teachers of prophecy have returned to the ancient teaching of the church; the church age ends with great tribulation. Okay? I'm on page 8 now. We're almost done. You'll notice the second diagram shown at the bottom of the page is known as PRETRIBULATIONAL PREMILLENNIALISM or Dispensational Premillennialism. According to this position, Christ will return not only before the millennium, but also before the tribulation. And we've gone through that.

According to the pretribulational premillennialism view, the church age will continue until, suddenly, unexpectedly, and secretly, Christ will return part way to earth, and then will catch believers to Himself. Let's pause. One of the great popular series of books is being printed, I know Tim personally; he's a friend of mine, a very close friend, Tim LaHaye -- Left Behind. Tim and his writer Mr. Jenkins have gone to this theme here, which we've just gone through, and what they write about is this moment right at the end of the church age where the Christians are taken away. And they believe that the church in a moment, in a twinkling of an eye, will be caught away into the glories and so shall we ever be with the Lord. It will be a secret, and then, of course, we are with Him.

Now there is one area of the second coming of Christ...let me pause here. I believe with all of my heart Jesus could come at any time. I believe that. But I have made some terrible mistakes in preaching over the last 53 years. I mean, I remember back in '67 when we had ships sitting out in the Mediterranean Sea and they were blasting away at Lebanon, and on the front pages of the San Francisco Examiner it read, "Could this be the battle of Armageddon?" And then when we had the Gulf War in 1991, I mean, preachers, some very, very popular preachers were saying the end is here.

I guess with some gray hair and 50 years and knowing church history, I don't really go along with that. I think it's been overly used to excite people to make decisions based upon a wrong premise. It's very clear Jesus is coming. He said I'm going to come. But how should that affect us as Christians? Just live as Christ-like so if it comes today or tomorrow we're ready.

One of the great preachers was asked, Pastor, if you knew Jesus was coming tomorrow at noon, would you change anything? No, he said, I wouldn't. He said, I plan on retiring tonight around 10:00, and I'll read my Bible. I'm going to get up in the morning and have tea, and I like to go water my garden around 10:00. And when He comes I'll be ready. What's he saying? He's just simply saying we live our lives in a Christ-like way so whenever Jesus should come we're ready. But to get people all scared to death; I remember when I was a little guy preachers would preaching on the second coming of Christ and I was afraid to go home. He could come tonight, and I'd be left behind. It was taught with great fear. Some of you remember that.

But now we've been able to look and see. We've covered 2000 years of history. It's a subject that has had all kinds of interpretations, and it varies with the church age. It doesn't change the fact -- He's coming and we want to be ready. But there's something beautiful about His coming. The Bible tells us that when He comes this earth and this heaven will be dissolved, and there will be a new heavens and a new earth. Now that gets me excited because when I realize that...when I was very young I would think about getting to heaven and sitting around on a cloud playing a harp for all of eternity. That doesn't sound very exciting to me. But the Bible tells us that when God wraps up His plan for this age, and the Christians are taken into their eternal glory and the sinners are judged, there will be a new heavens and a new earth. The place of righteousness. And imagine a place without sin and perfection and righteousness and joy and no sorrow or pain delay a. That's what's in store for us as Christians. So live your life for Jesus Christ with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind knowing that He could come at any time. And when He comes, we'll spend eternity with Him in a new heavens and a new earth. That's promise that we have as Christians at the second coming of Christ. Amen?

Father, we've taken time to try to understand the subject that has frankly been misused, even to heresy. We choose not to do that. We believe every scripture we read this evening, dear Jesus. You are coming again to receive us has believers unto Yourself. Now Your coming could be at any time and all we want to do is to so live our lives that when You come, we will hear those wonderful words, well done thou good and faithful servant. That's what we want to hear Jesus. Then to look forward to that joy of spending eternity with You forever. So we shout the words of the closing verses of our Bible -- Even so Lord Jesus, come quickly! And everybody said...amen. God bless you folks. God bless you.